The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

[Scheherazade]

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Having wathed the movie based on the book a few years ago, when I started to read this book, I thought I knew what it was all about. However, yet once again, the movie fails to capture the essence of a book. The Name of the Rose is a mystery story, in which a respected monk, William of Baskerville, and his young travelling companion, novice Adso, arrive at an Abbey only to discover that a number of murders have been committed. William shows many characteristics which remind the reader of those of Sherlock Holmes and, with the help of his companion, solves the mystery behind these murders.

Even though the book is a page turner as a mystery, its real value lies in the fact that Eco does a brillian job interjecting many historical and religious facts into the story. There are many passages questioning Christianity and religions in general; their attitude towards those who are not one of themselves and the things which contradict their beliefs: Did Jesus laugh? Should humanbeings laugh? Did Jesus carry a purse? Eco's subtle humour makes what would have been otherwise boring and didactic passages a delightful to read.

Having said that, I would also like to note that the book is laden with Latin expressions and phrases, which requires one to look them up quite often to follow some of the arguments.

10/10 KitKats!

[Virgil]

I liked this novel too. It was a great read.

Scher - All these book reviews. Was this all your summer reading?

[manolia]

10/10..read it a month ago and loved it!

[JCamilo]

Usually I consider Eco to be a great academic, a not so great writer. His historic references, his analyses of literature are much more interesting in his essays.
Not saying The Name of the Rose is a bad book, it is a good book, one of the few romances that manage to re-create the detective story under another guise. But his "medievalism" and "Latinism" are for me just a bit baroque exageration, the guy misses Jorge Luis Borges too much that forgot about his friend Calvino six proposals while writing. Anyways, considering the entire world can miss Borges, it is a fun reading.

[Psychosis]

Sometimes not a easy book to read, but the historical recreation was great. 9/10

[Virgil]

One of the great books of the late 20th century. In my opinion. :) 10/10

[Walter]

One of the books where I felt that the technique got in the way of the storytelling.

[vheissu]

One of the great books of the late 20th century. In my opinion. :) 10/10

I agree with you Virgil!

[believin]

I love The Name of the Rose.... and it is much less difficult to read than Eco's Foulcault's Pendulum!

[Wilde woman]

I read this one last year over the course of a month. It was absolutely riveting and I thought the preface where Eco pretends to have found Adso's manuscript was brilliant. He had me believing it for a while! I loved following William's line of reasoning. And I thought Eco did a fantastic job of integrating the historical elements; admittedly I wouldn't have been able to follow along with my year's worth of studying Dante's political world. As it was, I found lots of correlations all the way through. The ending was absolutely devastating in its scope and, I felt, completely changed the message of the book.

One thing I still don't understand: what is the significance of the title?

[amalia1985]

William and Adso's exchanges are some of the best in Modern Literature, in my opinion. An excellent novel, or even much more than a novel, an exploration to all that is dark in politics, religion, institutions, and perhaps above all, juman relationships.

[johann cruyff]

No one has mentioned the enormous amount of philosophy and logic incorporated in this work yet, the reason why I personally enjoyed the book the most.

Anyway, Eco is always a good read, I give this one 8/10.

[Virgil]

For those interested, The Name of the Rose was a forum book club discussion last year. You can read and add to the discussion here: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32319.

[crystalmoonshin]

Without a doubt, one of the best literary works from one of the world's best writers. i enjoyed the book, though I must admit that the Latin phrases sure gave me lots of headaches.